Building up the endurance - 70km Bike ride

February 13, 2016

Dear life, when I said 'can my day get any worse' it was a rhetorical question, not a challenge.

Saturday morning 8.00am. I'm wondering whether I should join the social cycling ride; still feeling weak after 4 days of fever. The date for the 5km swim pulling a heavy Kayak is quickly approaching though and the endurance levels are nowhere near to where they should be (guess there's my answer!)

The cycling group accidently split in 3 and I followed the 'lost souls' who left first. We took the wrong turn and unaware of it at the time we found ourselves climbing back again the notorious Chevin Hill in search of the others. It soon became aparent that they had taken a different route and my group decided to call it a day.

Despite my terrible sense of direction I decided to ride solo and surprisingly I didn't get lost during the almost 30km ride towards the Y. Dales. The only downside was I'd run out of milk that morning so I'd skipped breakfast; hunger was becoming increasingly present. Feeling a little weak and hungry, I was day-dreaming about the delicious cake and warm coffee that awaited me at the cyclists' café.

Having lost plenty of time waiting at the bottom of Chevin hill to then climb it back again meant I was half an hour behind schedule. When I finally made it to the café everyone was ready to leave. More concerned about cycling back in good company meant no leg rest, warming up and certainly no yummy cake for me.

On the bright side, this is how I did a back-to-back 70km ride and climbed the Chevin Hill twice in one morning.